Rockefeller Center in Rockefeller Plaza, one of the Top Attractions in NYC, New York, USA

Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres between 48th and 51st Streets in New York. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1988. It is the largest privately held complex of its kind in the world, and an international symbol of modernist architectural style blended with capitalism.

Attractions in and around Rockefeller Center

The Ice Skating Rink at Rockefeller Center has become a quintessential New York City winter experience for generations. Here you’ll find New Yorkers and visitors alike, skating amid the watchful eye of the gilded Prometheus statue and the unique urban backdrop of Rockefeller Center’s sparkling lights. Skating under the Christmas tree is an experience not to be missed.

The Radio City Music Hall is home to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, a New York Christmas tradition since 1933, and to the women’s precision dance team known as The Rockettes. The theater is also used for a variety of concerts and other special events.

Radio City Music Hall Stage Door Tour – $19.25

Explore the beautiful art-deco interiors, learn the secrets and history of the Great Stage (one of the largest indoor performance stages in the world), view the celebrity signed guest book and meet one of the world-famous Rockettes, stars of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular

NBC Studio Tour – $20

The NBC tour gives you the opportunity to visit some of the most famous NBC studios like Saturday Night Live, Nightly News with Brian Williams, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and the Today Show.

History

Rockefeller Center was named after John D. Rockefeller Jr. (“Junior”), who leased the space from Columbia University in 1928 and developed it from 1930. Rockefeller initially planned a syndicate to build an opera house for the Metropolitan Opera Company on the site, but changed his mind after the stock market crash of 1929 and the withdrawal of the Metropolitan from the project. It was the largest private building project ever undertaken in modern times. Construction of the 14 buildings in the Art Deco style (without the original opera house proposal) began on May 17, 1930 and was completed on November 1, 1939 when he drove in the final (silver) rivet into 10 Rockefeller Plaza.

The Center is a combination of two building complexes: the older and original 14 Art Deco office buildings from the 1930s, and a set of four International-style towers built along the Avenue of the Americas during the 1960s and 1970s (plus the Lehman Brothers Building). (The Time-Life Building, McGraw Hill and News Corporation/Fox News Channel headquarters are part of these “newer” Rockefeller Center buildings, which are now owned/managed by the major private real estate firm, Rockefeller Group.)

The Rockefeller Center is most famous for the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree as well as the skating rink. During Xmas, the ice skating rink is the crowd puller. With its huge gold statue of Prometheus, the Rockefeller center ice skating rink is a favorite of tourists and New Yorkers alike.

Location

The Rockefeller Center streches from 47th Street to 51st Street and from 5th Avenue to 7th Avenue.The tours leave from the NBC store located at Rockefeller Plaza and W. 49th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), across from the TODAY show studio.